We’ve seen this before: state and community colleges cutting the hours of its part-time faculty to avoid the increased financial burdens of Obamacare. Well, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, here we go again:

In Ohio, instructor Robert Balla faces a new cap on the number of hours he can teach at Stark State College. In a Dec. 6 letter, the North Canton school told him that “in order to avoid penalties under the Affordable Care Act… employees with part-time or adjunct status will not be assigned more than an average of 29 hours per week.”

Mr. Balla, a 41-year-old father of two, had taught seven English composition classes last semester, split between Stark State and two other area schools. This semester, his course load at Stark State is down to one instead of two as a result of the school’s new limit on hours, cutting his salary by about a total of $2,000.

Stark State’s move came as a blow to Mr. Balla, who said he earns about $40,000 a year and cannot afford health insurance.

“I think it goes against the spirit of the [health-care] law,” Mr. Balla said. “In education, we’re working for the public good, we are public employees at a public institution; we should be the first ones to uphold the law, to set the example.”

Cry me a river, Robert. Stark State is upholding the law — to the letter. Obamacare, which you evidently support, redefined full-time as as average of 30 or more hours per week and, with the expansion in required coverage, greatly increased the college’s financial burden. It’s not their fault that progressive, statist Democrats, in their rush to ram an unpopular, unwanted bill down the throats of Americans, created perverse incentives that your employers found irresistible. You had your chance to reverse this last November, but, I’m willing to bet, you chose Hope and Change, instead.

You got what you voted for, dude.

Be sure to read the rest of WR Mead’s article for a good discussion of the exploitation of part-time academics in higher education. I’ve done the grad school gig myself, and what he describes is all too common. For being towers of liberal sanctimony, universities and colleges are some of the worst exploiters of labor.